My son is 16 months old. Over the last month he has been breaking out with hives and rashes on his face within minutes of contact with an allergen. We are still working on what the allergen actually is.

Today he was in great spirits then had a cookie and about 45 min later he became extremely fussy, was rubbing his ears and excessively chewing on his hands. All of these are quite out of character for him. While he didn't have the usual hives, I was unsure of the cause so gave him so Benadryl. Within 10 minutes he was happy as can be and remained so for the rest of the day.

That sounds a lot like my daughter at that age athough she did almost always develop hives on contact as well.

I'd be cautious about what you give him. Go back to what you know he can eat, introduce new foods slowly ( 1 per week, give 3-4 days in a row and watch for symptoms) Be careful of items that you don't know the ingredients of and kep a list of what makes him fussy.

On the other hand...could he be teething or have an ear infection? Ear infection can go hand in hand with allergies especially at this young age.

We've gone two full days without hives or rashes, so I hope we've eliminated the right thing. We'll use the one per week method to narrow down which of the foods we've eliminated is actually causing the problem.

Willsmom, Welcome to the Forum and let me just add to what Susan has advised ....

The thing most people don't get is that you can't tell what someone's allergic to if what they're eating has a lot of ingredients. That's why Susan's saying add one at a time - then you can tell what causes a problem.

But - do be cautious with this. Your son may have been having minor skin reactions. But subsequent exposures/reactions could become worse.

Do you still have the package ingredients from the cookies that caused a problem? Give it a close read: what does the label say was in there?

If there was something like peanut or nut, I would speak to my doctor. He/she might want to prescribe a Jr. EpiPen to have on hand - just in case. And might want your child to do some allergy tests.

Also, not sure what you mean by "contact". You mean after eating or after just touching with his hands?

Just to add more...I think it was Karen who tests by first putting some of the item on the fore arm, then if this is tolerated putting some on the cheek, then the lip and finally tasting it.
This would not be used as a challenge but when trying new foods.

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